Cole Younger & Writing

I locked myself inside my home office three days ago to begin the rewrites on the Elizabeth Custer book and have just now finished. I love writing. What I can’t stand is the paperwork. Actually, I love having written. Working out all the bugs in the bibliography is the most difficult part of the job. There were many primary sources used to research this title and all have to be numbered and correspond with the right section and, well, it’s a nightmare. The new video promoting the book is on the website now under the “media” category. It’s both educational and heartbreaking. Sounds a little like my first marriage. There’s no time now to reflect on the Custer book or an ex-husband. I’ve got to get to work on the next manuscript. I’ll simply conclude my thoughts about the latter by saying that I went into the marriage knowing as much about the man as Mia Farrow did in Rosemary’s Baby. I was young and didn’t realize he thought monogamy was a type of wood. But enough of that, let’s get back to the Old West. On this day in 1861, 17 year-old Cole Younger, riding with Quantrill’s Raiders, skirmished with federal troops near Independence, Missouri and killed his first man. The shot was measured at 71 yards. On September 21, 1876, a posse caught up with Cole and he was shot seven times. The shots didn’t kill him. He was jailed, later paroled, and went on the lecture circuit preaching the evils of crime. Before his death in March 1916, he had locked himself in his home office to write his memoirs.